How to prepare for WASSCE Clothing and Textiles

Topic areas to revise

These are the areas candidates revise for WASSCE Clothing and Textiles. A heading is not a promise that every unit appears on your paper. Glearn does not host the WAEC file. If the file your school gives you uses a different name, follow the file.

1. 1. Fibres, yarns and fabrics

   A fibre is a fine strand. A yarn is fibres twisted together. A fabric is yarns or fibres made into cloth. They are not the same word. Cotton and linen come from plants. Wool and silk come from animals. Viscose is a regenerated fibre, made by treating a natural material such as wood pulp and forming it again as a fibre. Nylon, polyester and acrylic are synthetic. Regenerated is not the same as synthetic. A blend spins different fibres into one yarn. A mixture uses yarns of different fibres in the same cloth. Cotton takes in moisture and creases. Polyester dries quickly and resists creasing. Wool can felt if it is rubbed while hot and wet. Say the property and why it matters for use or for care. A burning test is one school method for telling fibres apart. Describe only what you observed: the smell, and whether the end left ash or a hard bead. Do not invent a result.

2. 2. How cloth is made, and how it is finished

   Weaving interlaces warp and weft. The warp runs the length of the cloth and is usually the stronger set. The weft runs across. The selvedge is the finished lengthwise edge that does not fray. Plain weave is the simple over and under. Twill shows a diagonal. Satin has a smooth face and is less firm. Knitting loops yarn. Crocheting loops with a hook. Felting mats fibres. The straight grain follows the warp. The bias is the diagonal, and it stretches, so a collar or a binding cut on the bias behaves differently from one cut on the straight grain. A finish changes the cloth after it is made. Mercerising gives cotton a smoother face and more lustre. Another finish limits shrinkage. Dyeing colours the fibre or the cloth. Printing puts a design on the surface. Name the finish the question asked about, and what it does.

3. 3. Tools, the sewing machine, and patterns

   Name a tool by the job it does. Measuring, cutting, marking, needles, pins and pressing are different classes. A tape measure is the tool. The word tape alone is not the tool. On the sewing machine, the needle, the presser foot, the bobbin and the feed dog are different parts. The presser foot holds the cloth down. The feed dog moves the cloth. They are not the same part. A skipped stitch can come from a bent or wrong needle. Thread looping under the cloth is often tension. If the cloth does not move, check that the feed dog is up. Name the fault and the check. Do not invent a repair you have not practised. A pattern is the shape you cut. The grain line, notches, darts, a fold line and a cutting line are markings. Read them before you cut. Take body measurements in the order you were taught, and write them down. Do not invent a measurement in the examination.

4. 4. Seams, fullness, and edge finishes

   A seam joins two pieces. A plain seam is the usual join, and the raw edge still needs a finish or it frays. A French seam is sewn twice so the raw edge is enclosed. It suits fine cloth. Say why you chose it. A flat felled seam is strong and shows two rows of stitching on the right side. Fullness is arranged by darts, gathers or pleats. The choice follows the cloth and the style. Piping is a narrow strip, often on the bias, used to finish or decorate an edge. A facing and a binding finish an edge in other ways. A hem turns the edge up. An opening needs a fastening: a button and a buttonhole, a zip, or hooks and eyes. A collar, a sleeve and a pocket are attached by the method the question names. Lining hides the inside. Interfacing stiffens a part such as a collar. Say the steps in the order you would work. A labelled sketch is credited when the question asks for one, and the labels must name the right parts.

5. 5. Wardrobe, care, and Ghanaian cloth

   A wardrobe plan starts from the person, the climate, the occasion and the money available. Clothes for a baby, a child, a teenager and an adult are not the same list. Say why a garment is there. Good grooming is clean clothes that fit, suitable for the occasion, and cared for. Elements and principles of design apply to clothing: colour, line, texture, balance and emphasis. A style that suits one figure may not suit another. Describe the figure the question gave, then the style, then the reason. Care follows the fibre. Sort by colour and by how the cloth should be washed. Cotton can take a hotter wash than silk or wool. Read a care label when there is one. Store clothes clean, dry and away from pests. Kente is woven. Adinkra symbols are printed. Batik and tie and dye are resist methods. They are not the same as weaving, and they are not the same as each other. A small clothing business needs a product people will buy, a safe place to sew, and a record of what you spent and what you sold. Food and Nutrition and Management in Living are still different examination subjects.

WASSCE syllabusPast questions with answersWASSCE Clothing and Textiles past questionsFibres and fabricsSewing tools and processesPattern draftingCare of clothingThe clothing industryBECE Career Technology past questionsBECE sewing and textilesWASSCE Food and Nutrition tipsWASSCE Visual Arts tipsBECE Career Technology tips

Explanations, sketches, and the practical

A theory mark is for a point a marker can see. A practical mark is for an article that matches the pattern and is finished. A name with no reason is hard to credit.

1. 1. Match the command

   State is a short fact. Define is the meaning. List is the items, without a story. Explain is the fact plus a reason. Distinguish needs both sides. Describe a process is the steps in the order you would work. A definition does not answer a question that asked for a method.

2. 2. Use the term the subject uses

   Fabric, yarn and fibre are different. A tape measure is not a tape. The selvedge is not the bias. A French seam is not a plain seam. If you are not sure of the term, describe the thing in plain words rather than guess the term.

3. 3. Give the reason, not only the name

   Polyester is chosen for a school skirt because it dries quickly and resists creasing. A French seam is chosen for a sheer blouse because it encloses the raw edge. The name of the fibre or the seam is the start. The reason is the mark.

4. 4. Put both sides of a distinction

   Warp and weft. A blend and a mixture. A plain seam and a French seam. Woven kente and printed Adinkra. Write one sentence for each side. Stopping after the first side has answered half of the question.

5. 5. On the practical, make the article in the brief

   Read the pattern markings before you cut. Stay on the grain the pattern names. Finish the seams the cloth needs. Press as you go. Present the article you were asked to make, not a different one. If course work is part of your paper, the pieces and the pattern should match what you were told to show. A measurement you did not take is not a result.

6. 6. Obey the rubric

   Answer the number of essays the instruction allows. An extra unfinished answer does not replace one you left blank. On the practical, complete the article the paper set. The Visual Arts textiles paper is not a substitute for a Clothing and Textiles question.

WASSCE exam tipsPast questions with answersBECE sewing and textiles

How to use the time

The clock is on the timetable and on the front of the paper. This page does not copy a duration. The habit is the same on any length of paper.

1. 1. Read the front before you write

   Note how many essays you may answer. On the practical, read the article, the pattern and the cloth before you cut. School candidates and private candidates follow the paper in front of them.

2. 2. Give each required essay a block

   Start with the question you find hardest while you are still calm. A script that is one long essay and several blank answers has not used the rubric.

3. 3. Treat the practical as its own paper

   Paper 3 is not the last minutes of the essay. Lay the pattern, check the grain, and cut once. Finish the seams before you decorate. An article you invent at the end is not the brief.

4. 4. Plan in points, then write

   List the points for an essay as short lines, each with its reason. Then write them as prose. If two lines say the same thing, replace one before you fair copy. A sketch, when the question asks for one, is drawn before the paragraph that explains it.

5. 5. Leave a short reading at the end

   A second look catches a missing side of a distinction, a fibre you swapped, and a practical that used the wrong pattern piece. The exam tips cover the morning of the paper. This page does not copy a duration.

WASSCE exam tipsWASSCE timetable

A short way to revise

Rotate the papers. A week of fibre names with no seam and no practical leaves two of the papers cold.

1. 1. Give each paper a turn

   One session for objective items, one for a short essay you find hard, and one for laying a pattern and sewing a seam from memory. Do not save paper 3 for the night before. Write the order of work even when you are not at a machine.

2. 2. Close the book and write the distinction

   Fibre against yarn against fabric. Warp against weft. A blend against a mixture. A plain seam against a French seam. Write both sides, then check which sentence only renamed the first idea.

3. 3. Reject the wrong options

   On an objective item, say why the other options fail. Viscose offered as a synthetic fibre is a reason to reject an option, not a detail to ignore. A presser foot offered as the part that moves the cloth is the same kind of reject.

4. 4. Have the answer marked

   Anna marks WASSCE Clothing and Textiles on glearn. Kevin is the coach on BECE practice. A written answer is marked point by point. Practise with Kevin and Anna on glearn.now. The first questions need no account.

5. 5. Keep Clothing and Textiles inside the wider plan

   The revision plan orders the weeks across every subject you sit. Food and Nutrition and Management in Living are different papers. Visual Arts textiles is a studio paper. Career Technology at BECE has a sewing strand, and it is not this paper. Revise them on their own guides. This page does not copy a date.

WASSCE revision planHow to pass the WASSCEWASSCE Food and Nutrition tipsTry WASSCE practice free

Mistakes chief examiners keep returning to

WAEC chief examiners write a report after a sitting. This page describes the habits in general. It does not quote a report, and it does not give a figure.

1. 1. A loose word where the subject has a term

   Fabric, yarn and fibre do different jobs. A tape measure is the measuring tool. Writing a shorter word because it sounds close does not earn the mark. Use the term, or describe the thing plainly.

2. 2. A fibre property with no use

   Naming cotton, or polyester, and stopping there has not explained the fibre. Say what the fibre does when it is worn, washed or sewn, when the question asks for a property or a choice.

3. 3. Regenerated fibre listed as synthetic

   Viscose is regenerated. Nylon, polyester and acrylic are synthetic. A script that puts viscose with the synthetic list has lost the distinction. A blend and a mixture are different as well.

4. 4. Warp and weft swapped

   The warp runs the length and forms the selvedge. The weft runs across. The grain line on a pattern follows the warp unless the pattern says otherwise. Swapping them spoils the cut and the answer.

5. 5. A French seam or piping left unfinished

   A French seam has to enclose the raw edge. Piping has to sit on the edge it was meant to finish, even and not twisted. Naming the process and not showing the steps, or not finishing it on the practical, is a common loss.

6. 6. A practical that ignores the pattern

   The grain, the notches and the article you were told to make are the question. A different garment, however careful, has not answered it. An invented measurement does not repair a piece cut on the wrong grain.